The Story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was born Thérèse Martin, in 1873. She lived in France with her parents and four older sisters, and led a very ordinary life. Thérèse went to the local school, and she loved reading, playing with her dolls, and dressing up.
Every Sunday, Thérèse went to Mass with her family. From a young age, she trusted that Jesus listened to her prayers and was very close to her. Through her prayers, at church and at home, Thérèse came to know Jesus like a friend.
At the age of seven, Thérèse became a member of the Holy Childhood charity. To help share God’s love around the world, Thérèse would share her pocket money with the charity and pray for children and missionaries in different countries. Today in England and Wales, the Holy Childhood charity is known as Mission Together. Mission Together is the children's branch of Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission.
As Thérèse grew older she wanted to do more, so she planned to become a missionary. A missionary is a person who brings God’s love and the message of Jesus to people who are suffering and in need of help, often overseas. She once wrote:
‘I'd like to travel all over the world, making your name known… I should want to have been a missionary ever since creation and go on being a missionary till the world came to an end!’
Sadly, Thérèse struggled with poor health, and it soon became clear that she would be too weak to travel. Although disappointed, Thérèse did not lose hope. She decided that if she could not become a missionary, she would become a nun instead. A nun is a woman who dedicates her whole life to loving God and helping others. She lives with other nuns in a building called a convent.
Thérèse decided to become a nun when she was 14. This was too young to leave home, but it did not stop Thérèse asking the local nuns if she could join them. The nuns told Thérèse that she should wait until she was older. But Thérèse didn’t want to wait. Although she was nervous, she plucked up the courage to speak to the Bishop.
A Bishop is the leader of the local priests and nuns. But the Bishop also told Thérèse that she was too young to become a nun. Thérèse decided to ask someone even more important than the Bishop. So, she convinced her father to take her to see the Pope!
Our Pope today is called Francis, but in Thérèse’s lifetime, the Pope was called Leo XIII. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. He helps people all over the world to know about Jesus and encourages them to follow the example Jesus gave of loving others.
When Thérèse asked Pope Leo if she could become a nun he replied kindly, 'You will become a nun if it is God’s will.’ Thérèse joined the convent at the age of 15.
As a nun, Thérèse spent her days praying for the world and learning about Jesus. She had many favourite passages from the Bible, like this from the Gospel of St Luke 10:21.
Jesus said, ‘I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden your wisdom from people who are boastful and proud. But you have revealed it to those who are humble like little children.’
Thérèse liked this passage because she was young, small, and shy. But by growing closer to Jesus and learning from his example, Thérèse saw that these things need not stop her from making a big difference. She wrote;
‘In spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.'
Encouraged by this thought, Thérèse came up with a great idea. She would show God’s love to others through small acts of kindness. She called this her ‘Little Way’. She wrote;
'Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love... Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.'
Thérèse wrote about her ‘Little Way’ in notebooks. After she died, at the young age of 24, her notebooks were discovered. The people who read them hadn’t realised how wise Thérèse had been. They decided to print Thérèse’s notebooks so her words could be read around the world.
Soon people everywhere began following Thérèse’s ‘Little Way’. They still do today. And so Thérèse helped to share God’s love in the world, just as she’d dreamed of doing as a missionary. That is one reason why a few years after her death, the Pope made little Thérèse the patron saint of missionaries.
We can show God’s love for the world too, by being kind to others, by sharing what we have, by being fair and forgiving. No matter how small we are, we can make a big difference, like St Thérèse of Lisiuex, patron of missionaries. ‘In spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.' Jesus said, ‘I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden your wisdom from people who are boastful and proud. But you have revealed it to those who are humble like little children.’
We celebrate the Feast Day of St. Teresa on 1st October.